Abstract This article, a transcript of the 2026 Historical Research Lecture, re-visits the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of radical history we need in our public life and contemporary context today. In particular, it explores ways in which popular history – trade publishing for a wide public audience – has the capacity to be radical, drawing on experiences and examples from the author's new book A History of England in 25 Poems (Penguin Allen Lane, September 2025). The discussion moves towards a manifesto for how research-led, scholarship-driven popular history can and does make necessary, vital public interventions – from opening inclusive conversations and confronting the rise of A.I., to modelling radical empathy and imagination.
Catherine A M Clarke (2026) studied this question.
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